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Broome County appeals redistricting decision

Broome County is asking an appellate court to reconsider a decision invalidating its county legislature map.
Vaughn Golden
/
WSKG
Broome County is asking an appellate court to reconsider a decision invalidating its county Legislature map.

Broome County is appealing a lower court’s decision to toss out its newly drawn county Legislature districts.

A lower court found the Legislature lines weren’t in compliance with a state law requiring districts not to vary in population by more than 5%.

The county attorney filed an appeal of that decision last week.

Republican County Legislature Chairman Dan Reynolds told WSKG he agrees with the decision to appeal.

"We want to make sure, regardless of what the end of the outcome is, that we have something that is able to be fair, reasonable and to be in compliance with the law,” Reynolds said. “That's the objective. That was the objective to begin with. We still feel that the original maps were... from that perspective, I think the original maps were in compliance with the law. I didn't agree with the lower court. So yes, I support the county attorney's opinion to appeal and we'll wait and see what they say."

Reynolds said he hopes the appellate court will either reverse the lower court’s decision or provide more clarity on how the county should go about redrawing the maps.

The attorney for the Democratic-backed plaintiffs who filed the original challenge declined to comment.

Vaughn Golden has been reporting across New York since 2016. Working as a freelancer while studying journalism and economics at Ithaca College, Vaughn has reported for a number of outlets including the Albany Times Union, New York Post, and NPR among others. Prior to coming to WSKG full-time, Vaughn was a reporter for the Watertown Daily Times. Vaughn now covers government and politics for WSKG.
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